Capital Fest

Partner with NCHE in Serving Home Educators in NC and Beyond

Membership

Become part of an organization devoted to serving NC homeschoolers. Help us advance our threefold purpose: PROTECT the freedom of educating at home, PROVIDE encouragement & support to families who choose home education for their children, and PROMOTE home education as an educational alternative

Volunteer

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Region 8

Welcome to Region 8, which includes Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Hoke, Robeson, Sampson and Scotland counties. As your regional liaison, I am here to encourage you in your homeschool journey. Please let me know if we can help you or answer any questions,

If the support group name is listed in blue, you may follow the link to find out more information about that group.

If you are a support group leader in Region 8 and you have a support group that is not listed here, please contact me so I can add that information to our website. Also, if you notice something is missing or in error in the support groups listed below, please contact me so I can make the necessary corrections.

Diane Helfrich is an empty-nesting fourteen-year veteran of homeschooling. Raised in Nebraska, Diane grew up driving wheat trucks and showing cattle, modeling, sewing and cooking—all the while raising spiders in jars, molds in drawers and entertaining pet snakes and salamanders. She attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, graduating with a BS in biology. She began employment in December 1979 with IBM in Rochester, Minnesota (notice how that biology degree played out!) in a publications department doing manual proofreading. One thing led to another, and she found herself learning to be a programmer and eventually became a personnel manager. In her last position there, she was overseeing technical work across multiple locations for internal software development tools.

She remembers clearly standing in her mother’s kitchen and telling her that she would never have children, and if she did, someone else would have to be the primary in raising them. God had a good chuckle and gave her a son, Ian! Once the shock wore off, the motherhood feelings flooded her soul in an unanticipated desire to stay home. While it wasn't an option at that point, when she became pregnant with a second child, she decided it was time to stay at home and raise children. Ian started school in 1997, and during his second grade year, the decision was made to homeschool as he was very bright and tuning out quickly. The DDIA Center of Achievement was initiated! (Be careful in naming your school…David, Diane, Ian and Anna when put into an initialism look remarkably like a government agency! Oh well.) Her eclectic life and unbounded curiosity has worked well for homeschooling!

Diane is married to David, a civilian intelligence specialist for US Army Special Operations Command in Fayetteville. Ian, a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, received his masters degree in economic policy at the Barcelona School of Economics and is currently at Indiana University working on his PhD. Anna is at George Mason University in Virginia as an honors college student majoring in conflict analysis & resolution and law based philosophy. Diane is empty nesting and trying to figure out what she will be when she grows up. During her homeschooling tenure, she taught many classes for the HOME (Homes Offering Meaningful Education) co-op day ranging from elementary choirs and science to high school biology, chemistry and philosophy. She served on the HOME board for five years. She still supports the contact us function for the HOME website, answering questions for many. She is now doing some freelance editing and has landed her first book contract. She also decided that life without children was not fun and has adopted a class of sixth graders for Confirmation at her church.

Diane is the NCHE Region 8 liaison and is excited to serve homeschoolers in her area. She is passionate about getting homeschoolers started correctly and welcomes new contacts.

Regional Groups

NCHE is committed to helping North Carolina homeschoolers succeed, including fostering community.
There are many and various groups and associations throughout the state devoted to supporting home educators.